The present invention relates to tools used in building and decorating and, in particular, it concerns a plastering trowel with a concavely curved flexible spreading surface.
It is known to use a trowel to apply and spread plaster on walls. The commonly used trowel design, illustrated as trowel 10 in FIG. 1, employs a planar, rectangular, metal blade 12 rigidly connected at one or two points to a raised handle 14.
Plastering generally requires considerable skill and expertise. The plaster must be evenly spread to conceal imperfections in the underlying wall 16 and to avoid forming undulating waves. Each stroke of trowel 10 used to spread the plaster tends to leave ridges 18 where material was pushed out from the sides of the trowel, and also leaves behind residual material and dirt originating from the wall surface and from the plaster. Additionally, it the trowel is not held exactly parallel to, and at the correct inclination to, the surface, the sharp corners and edges of the trowel form additional lines or scrapes, reducing the quality of the finished surface.
There is therefore a need for a plastering trowel which facilitates easy spreading of plaster without forming ridges, lines or scrapes, which will help to remove residual material and dirt, and which will render unnecessary the additional labor of rubbing down the wall before application of a second layer.